BORN
1946

INDUCTED
2023

CATEGORY
Education

THE HONOURED INDUCTEES TO THE SINGAPORE WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME

KHOO KIM CHOO

Pioneering educator and early childhood development specialist
Khoo Kim Choo is a pioneer of early childhood development and education in Singapore. She played a key role in the transformation and growth of the sector, spearheading several projects in the 1980s and 1990s that laid the foundations for its professionalisation and the raising of standards.

When Kim Choo entered the field in the 1980s, the preschool sector was not well developed. Children from middle- and higher-income families went to kindergartens, which came under the purview of the Education Ministry. For children from low-income families, there were a few creches, as childcare centres were known then, that came under the Social Welfare Department. There was no central authority overseeing the sector, and the staff at the creches had little if any training.

Today, there is a wide and expanding range of childcare facilities in Singapore, and a growing pool of well-trained childcare staff and early childhood development specialists. This is in no small part due to Kim Choo’s efforts during the 1980s and 1990s.

Apart from the 16 years she spent with the NTUC Childcare Services group, Kim Choo has applied her expertise and passion for early childhood development in a wide range of roles – consultant, advisor, advocate, trainer, keynote conference speaker, university lecturer, specialist volunteer, and author of academic, professional, parenting, and children’s books.

When the Singapore government began in the early 2000s to look at consolidating and strengthening the sector, a move that led to the formation in 2013 of the Early Childhood Development Agency, Kim Choo was appointed an advisor and consultant.

Kim Choo was as a child drawn to the caring professions. Growing up in Penang, she thought she would like to be a nurse. Her father however felt a teaching career would be better, so she dutifully went to the Teacher’s Training College in Kuala Lumpur. But when she found that Singapore University offered a degree in social work, she hopped on the night train to Singapore in 1967 and became a social work student.

When she graduated, to her dismay, she was initially posted to run a creche. Some months later, she got the job she wanted – dealing with troubled girls. But after several years in this job, Kim Choo realised that what was really needed was early intervention with children and parents to prevent problems from escalating. This would be much more effective than taking remedial action later.

So she left her job and went off to the US to pursue a Master’s degree and then a PhD from the University of Washington. She did her research on cognitive interpersonal problem-solving with the kindergarten children of NTUC Childcare Services. On her return to Singapore in 1984, NTUC Childcare asked her to join them as a child development specialist to ‘train, train, and train’.

In 1992, when NTUC Childcare became a cooperative in its own right rather than a division of the NTUC, Kim Choo was the first CEO. Over the years, she grew the number of the group’s childcare centres from 12 to 28 and also set up The Little Skoolhouse International.

When Kim Choo joined NTUC Childcare, the Bernard van Leer Foundation from Netherlands was looking to fund projects for low-income children and families. The timing was perfect. Kim Choo had a source of funds that allowed her to spearhead three projects over the next decade.

The first project was to upgrade the quality of care through training and curriculum development. The second focused on involving parents at the childcare centres, and the community at toy and book libraries at void decks.

It was the third project that had the greatest impact – the establishment of the Regional Training and Resource Centre for Early Childhood Care and Education (RTRC Asia). Kim Choo collaborated with Wheelock College of Boston, USA, to offer a Master’s Programme on Early Childhood Education. This led to the launch of the first Diploma in Early Childhood Education Course, which was taught by the Master’s graduates.

Kim Choo also initiated the first Polytechnic Diploma in Early Childhood Education in Singapore with Ngee Ann Polytechnic. RTRC and the polytechnic initially collaborated to offer the course, and after a few years RTRC handed over the early childhood education component to the polytechnic.

From 2000 to 2015, Kim Choo served as a Specialist Volunteer with the Singapore International Foundation. In 2000, she led a team of trainers to Vietnam to collaborate with Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training to train trainers in early childhood education using low-cost and no-cost recycled and natural resources

One project took the team to Dalat to work with the K’ho minority community. The village kindergarten was rundown with no play and learning resources. Kim Choo’s team transformed it into a vibrant kindergarten that later became a demonstration centre for other teachers from mountain villages.

In 2004, Kim Choo led a team to Myanmar. Over the next decade, the team trained 65 Myanmar preschool trainers, who then went on to train 13,000 preschool teachers. The team helped to set up three demonstration centres, the first early childhood teacher training centre, and a resource centre. The project culminated in the production of a resource book for all Myanmar preschool teachers.

Kim Choo has received many awards for her contributions to the early childhood field, including the Public Service Medal and an Honorary Doctorate in Education from Wheelock College. The college also offered for several years the Khoo Kim Choo Scholarship for leadership.

In 2006, soon after her first grandson was born, Kim Choo set up the Preschool for Multiple Intelligences because, as she explained, “I wanted to create a preschool that would nurture him in the best possible way. Every child is unique and intelligent in his or her way.”

KHOO KIM CHOO

Pioneering educator and early childhood development specialist

BORN 1946
INDUCTED 2023
CATEGORY Education

Khoo Kim Choo is a pioneer of early childhood development and education in Singapore. She played a key role in the transformation and growth of the sector, spearheading several projects in the 1980s and 1990s that laid the foundations for its professionalisation  and the raising of standards. 

When Kim Choo entered the field in the 1980s, the preschool sector was not well developed.  Children from middle- and higher-income families went to kindergartens, which came under the purview of the Education Ministry. For children from low-income families, there were a few creches, as childcare centres were known then, that came under the  Social Welfare Department. There was no central authority overseeing the sector, and the staff at the creches had little if any training.

Today, there is a wide and expanding range of childcare facilities in Singapore, and a growing pool of well-trained childcare staff and early childhood development specialists. This is in no small part due to Kim Choo’s efforts during the 1980s and 1990s. 

Apart from the 16 years she spent with the NTUC Childcare Services group, Kim Choo has applied her expertise and passion for early childhood development in a wide range of roles – consultant, advisor, advocate, trainer, keynote conference speaker, university lecturer, specialist volunteer, and author of academic, professional, parenting, and children’s books.

When the Singapore government began in the early 2000s to look at consolidating and strengthening the sector, a move that led to the formation in 2013 of the Early Childhood Development Agency, Kim Choo was appointed an advisor and consultant.

Kim Choo was as a child drawn to the caring professions. Growing up in Penang, she thought she would like to be a nurse.  Her father however felt a teaching career would be better, so she dutifully went to the Teacher’s Training College in Kuala Lumpur. But when she found that Singapore University offered a degree in social work, she hopped on the night train to Singapore in 1967 and became a social work student. 

When she graduated, to her dismay, she was initially posted to run a creche. Some months later, she got the job she wanted – dealing with troubled girls.  But after several years in this job, Kim Choo realised that what was really needed was early intervention with children and parents to prevent problems from escalating. This would be much more effective than taking remedial action later. 

So she left her job and went off to the US to pursue a Master’s degree and then a PhD from the University of Washington. She did her research on cognitive interpersonal problem-solving with the kindergarten children of NTUC Childcare Services. On her return to Singapore in 1984, NTUC Childcare asked her to join them as a child development specialist to ‘train, train, and train’. 

In 1992, when NTUC Childcare became a cooperative in its own right rather than a division of the NTUC, Kim Choo was the first CEO. Over the years, she grew the number of the group’s childcare centres from 12 to 28 and also set up The Little Skoolhouse International.  

When Kim Choo joined NTUC Childcare, the Bernard van Leer Foundation from Netherlands was looking to fund projects for low-income children and families. The timing was perfect. Kim Choo had a source of funds that allowed her to spearhead three projects over the next decade.   

The first project was to upgrade the quality of care through training and curriculum development. The second focused on involving parents at the childcare centres, and the community at toy and book libraries at void decks.

It was the third project that had the greatest impact – the establishment of the Regional Training and Resource Centre for Early Childhood Care and Education (RTRC Asia).   Kim Choo collaborated with Wheelock College of Boston, USA, to offer a Master’s Programme on Early Childhood Education. This led to the launch of the first Diploma in Early Childhood Education Course, which was taught by the Master’s graduates. 

Kim Choo also initiated the first Polytechnic Diploma in Early Childhood Education in Singapore with Ngee Ann Polytechnic. RTRC and the polytechnic initially collaborated to offer the course, and after a few years RTRC handed over the early childhood education component to the polytechnic.

From 2000 to 2015, Kim Choo served as a Specialist Volunteer with the Singapore International Foundation. In 2000, she led a team of trainers to Vietnam to collaborate with Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training to train trainers in early childhood education using low-cost and no-cost recycled and natural resources

One project took the team to Dalat to work with the K’ho minority community. The village kindergarten was rundown with no play and learning resources. Kim Choo’s team transformed it into a vibrant kindergarten that later became a demonstration centre for other teachers from mountain villages.  

In 2004, Kim Choo led a team to Myanmar. Over the next decade, the team trained 65  Myanmar preschool trainers, who then went on to train 13,000 preschool teachers. The team helped to set up three demonstration centres, the first early childhood teacher training centre, and a resource centre. The project culminated in the production of a resource book for all Myanmar preschool teachers.  

Kim Choo has received many awards for her contributions to the early childhood field, including the Public Service Medal and an Honorary Doctorate in Education from Wheelock College. The college also offered for several years the Khoo Kim Choo Scholarship for leadership.

 

In 2006, soon after her first grandson was born, Kim Choo set up the Preschool for Multiple Intelligences because, as she explained, “I wanted to create a preschool that would nurture him in the best possible way. Every child is unique and intelligent in his or her way.”

“Whatever challenges I encounter, I tend to just deal with them and move on. I have never ever thought about giving up. There will always be challenges to face, but if we see each challenge as an opportunity to learn something new – new skills, new ways of working with people, new ways of looking at things – then we can calmly look at it and figure out how to best deal with it.”
“I started off as a trained social worker specialising in children and families, and eventually embraced the early childhood field. It was then that I realised how much I love working with children. They are absolutely the light of my life because their disarming innocence and spontaneity are so simple, yet profound and enlightening.”